Are the activists who started the Syrian revolution-cum-civil war being pushed off Facebook? (Via Matt Ford and Kelsey D. Atherton.) And how does Facebook’s arbitrary ability to shutter pages challenge its increasing role as a global source of news and activist communications?

An interesting post from Xavier Marquez on the power of Francisco Franco’s political non-commitment: “Franco’s political strength lay precisely in credibly not being for one or another part of his coalition, and this was made possible because he seems to have had no firm underlying convictions beyond, perhaps, his commitment to a picture of himself as savior of Spain” (via Robert Farley).

ABOUT US

Barbara F. Walter is a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. Erica Chenoweth is a political scientist at the University of Denver. Joe Young is a political scientist at American University. Together, they edit this blog to provide simple, straight-forward analysis of political violence around the world.